Tornado warning is mistake by National Weather Service

If you received an alert on your phone or an email saying there was a tornado warning Monday morning, it was a mistake.

In an effort to prepare for a mock tornado warning later in April, the National Weather Service meteorologists at Sullivan wanted to do an initial test of the tornado warning system in-house, but the alert reached far beyond their office walls.

"Rather than being in test mode, we were accidentally in operational mode, so it went out just like it would during a tornado outbreak," National Weather Service meteorologist Jeff Craven said.

The reason why so many people received the tornado warning Monday was because it was sent out in operational mode -- and it comes down to one simple letter -- that "O" should have been a "T."

When the weather service computers are put in test mode, and a tornado warning is generated, the wireless emergency alert system would look for a "T" at the top of the message and discard the warning, but since the test message had an "O" for operational or live warning, the alert was sent through and was passed on to thousands of wireless emergency alert enabled phones.

"Many of these products only say 'tornado warning,' they don't have any of the test wording we have in there so it looks just like a real tornado warning," Craven said. "We're definitely going to be spending a lot of time reviewing how we can better do tests."

Smartphones were not the only media to receive the tornado warning. WISN 12's own Twitter feed, which is set to automatically relay severe weather warnings, also passed on the alert.

The false information was quickly corrected minutes later.

Some smartphones and carriers started passing on these life-threatening weather alerts last spring. They are location-based, so if a person is close to a cell tower included in the warning, they would get the alert.

People should check to see if their phone is wireless emergency-enabled and see if their carrier passes the alerts through.

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